Re: the Royals' system... Dayton Moore's success as a talent recruiter and developer depends on Hosmer and Moustakas doing more than show flashes. Like Alex Gordon in his early days, they have show enough to understand the hype but have struggled adjusting.

Billy Butler and Alex Gordon are well above-average major league players developed internally. Butler has succeeded basically from Day 1 (though his power has really only started to show up in HR over the past season and a half).

Gordon actually had a very nice sophomore campaign (.351/.432) before falling off the cliff for a few years and coming back on pace and living up to expectations.

He's on pace for a .325/25 HR/110 RBI/.350 OBP/.520 SLG year. Finally hitting to expectations.

I'd also point to Sal Perez, who has finally reached a full season's worth of career at-bats in the bigs and has hit .300+ while slugging in the .450 range.

But all that falls apart if one of Hosmer/Moustakas doesn't become a legitimate above-average player and the other at least average.

Using Myers/Montgomery/Odorizzi to add Shields and Davis is not a bad move, IMO. That's how a deep farm system SHOULD be leveraged.

As for the pitching prospects... John Lamb's Tommy John surgery was extremely bad luck. That was the best guy out of that group, IMO. And he looks like he might be the 1/10 guys that never comes all the way back.

They got some use out of Montgomery after he started to bust, and full value for Odorizzi.

That leaves Chris Dwyer (who actually is healthy and pitching pretty well at Omaha) and Danny Duffy (who looked very promising before TJ last year). I think they'll get good value out of Duffy as a solid No. 3 starter in the majors, and Dwyer can be a valuable trade piece, IMO.

My point:
The book still is open on the top-ranked farm system of a few years ago. It depends on Hosmer/Moustakas figuring it out and Danny Duffy coming back strong.

But yeah, some legitimate questions about the Royals minor league approach under Moore. And some questions that will stick about WHY he deviated from his draft strategy in 2010 to take Christian Colon instead of a higher upside college pitcher or high-upside high school guy.

Ankiel just tied the game against us with a 2-run homer.

I don't mind seeing him do well, I just wish it didn't come at our expense. :grr:

FYP

The injuries to half their first wave of SP prospects are not really avoidable/organization fault. But the lack of SP development under Moore will remain a question until/unless Duffy/Zimmer/Ventura change the script.

They developed bullpen pitchers at a rate that is almost alarming.

The question remains:

We know that Ankiel lost his confidence and his mechanics and that his mental issues led to the collapse, but did anyone see a specific flaw in his mechanics as well?

Lead restored. :thumb:

Frazod's reaction to our #3 hitter coming up this half inning:

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I always thought release point was his issue. He just lost his release point and his confidence in letting it rip. Started trying to aim it/dart it and fell apart.

I've always known little about throwing mechanics. I had a similar "yips" moment when trying to throw breaking pitches. I started opening up way early and for a long period of time couldn't accurately throw a baseball from 20 feet away. Really got in my head.

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Yadier....Celebraaaate.

Somebody is not paying attention to the Royals if you think those trades are fails.

That's a winner.

Unless you pitch or coach past little league, there's little reason to study all the intricacies of pitching mechanics. At least when it comes to breaking pitches. So much weird, tiny little things (finger placement is easy, but pressure, release, when the arm pronates, how hard it pronates, elbow position when you snap it off, etc.).

Some guys just have a natural knack for it, and when they lose it, they have a really hard time finding it again. I think Ankiel was one of those guys. I was, too. I hard a hard time throwing a consistent curveball because of my motion/arm slot, but I had a pretty hard-biting slider. And that was just a natural thing I found messing around playing catch.

You really think we were going to lose this one?

Well, jury's still out on the Shields/Myers trade, but how was the Sanchez/Cabrera trade not a fail?